Birth; It is not only the birth of a baby, but also the couple's birth to motherhood and fatherhood, and the story of a human being is shaped not at the moment of birth, but at the moment it falls into the minds of the parents and by the transfers from their ancestors.
During pregnancy, expectant mothers and fathers begin to imagine their own parenting processes together with their past family experiences. Along with fantasies about the baby, the effect of hormones, and the physiological and psychological changes brought about by pregnancy, the expectant mother may develop: anxiety about her baby, fear about birth, or other anxieties and fears.
Does the Mother's Psychology During Pregnancy Affect the Baby?
Many expectant mothers are afraid of birth for different reasons, even though they have never experienced it. To give a few examples, first of all, how the person's own birth story is conveyed to him/her (positive/negative-scary) is very important here. A person who grows up with negative stories may believe that he/she will experience the negative story he/she heard when he/she got pregnant, during his/her own birth as well, and may be afraid of giving birth. Another reason is listening to other people's negative birth stories and attributing other people's experiences to their own birth. The difficulties experienced by a person in her previous birth(s) may turn into anxiety about experiencing the same things when she becomes pregnant again. Reasons such as fear of the responsibilities of being a parent, feeling of inadequacy, problems in the relationship with the spouse, relationship with their own parents, not wanting to move away from their career, care of the baby after birth and anxiety about what kind of life awaits them, traumatic life events, previous miscarriages, abortion stories, etc. It triggers concerns about pregnancy and the mother's feelings and thoughts during pregnancy can affect the personality of the unborn baby.
The uterus is the baby's first world. In shaping the human world, many factors both before and after birth come together and affect personality formation. A single event does not create a personality, it creates its pattern. A fetus is a being that can see, hear, taste, and feel, although not like an adult. Just as a mother's smoking, alcohol, and taking certain medications during her pregnancy have negative effects on the unborn baby. Similarly, the mother's feelings and thoughts can also have positive/negative effects on the baby. What the baby feels and perceives in the womb allows it to shape its own expectations and behaviors, and the behavioral patterns and attachment style that form as a result of how the child sees itself after birth are partially based on the messages it received in the womb. Just as the uterus is a home for the baby, it also creates its expectations from life. If the womb is a warm and loving place for the baby, the child will expect the outside world to be like this after birth, and it will determine his or her predisposition to develop a sense of trust, to be extroverted, and to trust himself and others. Otherwise, when the womb is a difficult environment for the baby, after birth, the baby will expect the same things from the outside world and will develop introverted, suspicious, distrustful tendencies towards himself and others.
These fields, known worldwide as prenatal (before birth) and perinatal (birth) psychology, examine the psychology of the pregnant mother and the psychology of the unborn baby. Research is being conducted on what the fetus can learn in the womb, what affects it, and what it records. The level of psychosocial support during pregnancy is very important for mental health and the health of the fetus. According to a study conducted at the University of Michigan, it was found that excited expectant mothers take longer to give birth than calm expectant mothers. According to a study conducted at the University of Cincinnati, 10 psychological factors were investigated and the ones that prolonged labor pains the most and made birth difficult were found to be "attitude towards motherhood", "relationship with the mother", "habitual unrest, worries, fears", respectively. At Brown University, it was noted that 50 expectant mothers (25 normal, happily waiting for birth, 25 with problems) who had problems after birth experienced various birth complications, both minor and major, while not a single one in the normal group had any problems. In a study conducted at the University of North Carolina, babies were diagnosed without medical symptoms. It has been observed that expectant mothers who are intensely concerned about their child's health and being born with disabilities have a much higher risk of being exposed to complications during birth, births take longer, and the babies' Apgar (test performed between 1 and 5 minutes after birth) scores are low. Freud defined this anxiety as “a return to some phase in the evolutionary history of the sense of self, a regression to the period when the self was not yet clearly limited by the other and the outside world.”
The Importance of a Pregnant and Birth Psychologist
The pregnancy process is a very special moment. It includes not only physiological but also mental and psychological factors. During pregnancy and birth; Getting psychological support when needed is an important step for both the expectant mother and father, and for the baby who has not yet opened his or her eyes to the world, but whose body records everything. The expectant mother; Her birth in her own family history, the effects of pregnancy experiences and perceptions on her current pregnancy process, feelings and thoughts suppressed since childhood, and traumatic events experienced are revealed during the pregnancy process. Pregnancy gives the expectant mother the opportunity to identify with both her own mother and the child in that relationship, that is, with herself, and past suppressed anxieties and covered unresolved memories may re-emerge. In addition, receiving psychological support has a very important place in order to eliminate anxiety and fears related to pregnancy, perception of pregnancy, negative thoughts and concerns about the baby, increasing the quality of relationships with family and spouse, and eliminating fears about the moment of birth. The importance of psychological support at the time of birth is; Even if psychological work is done with the expectant mother before birth, unconscious past traumas, anxieties and fears about birth may be revived at the time of birth, sometimes the progress of labor may stop even though there is no medical reason, it may become obstructed, the mother and/or the baby may become stressed. By resolving the psychological factors involved, the birth is supported to continue on its course. Negative messages from unconscious records during birth In addition to ensuring that the mother gives birth without being affected by memories, it also supports the mother to remain calm throughout the entire process, and also aims to ensure that the unborn baby does not open her eyes to the world with negative birth memories.
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